Scientific literacy 2: reading in science

This post is the second in a series about methods of embedding scientific literacy into our curriculum, so it becomes a more well-practised skill for our students. Whilst my focus is primarily on KS3, I have also created a wider reading list for our KS5 Physics pupils, and have started setting the odd literacy-related task as homeworks.

The first post in the series can be found here

Throughout this post I’m likely to refer to literature, but in reality these strategies will work for any type of literature or representation of data, not just the long paragraphs. That means tables, graphs, bullet points of information, anything. It all counts.

As a reminder, this needs to be dotted throughout the curriculum at regular intervals; doing one comprehension task as a one-off won’t cut it.

Tactic 1: Modelling reading in class

Perhaps most simply, the first thing that our teachers are starting to do is display the literature under the visualiser (though you could open a document on the board instead, for example), and reading through it as a group.

What this means is that teachers are systematically picking out specialist vocabulary and defining and explaining it, and discussing what each sentence or paragraph actually means in more student-friendly language.

By reading the piece together, it helps to make sure everyone is roughly keeping pace (though having students reading aloud would also be beneficial here). The verbal scaffolding provided by the teacher allows students to think more about what the literature is actually telling them.

There are some further examples of where you might find reading resources at the end of the post, but this screenshot comes from Science Journal for Kids. Any time we can find genuinely interesting literature, we must. There will usually be some link to the curriculum, but if it’s slightly off-piste, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.

For older students, when reading pieces that come from the wider media, this may also act as an opportunity to discuss bias from the author/publisher, and consider how the arguments put forward in the article are being presented.

Tactic 2: Comprehension

There is a significant chance that you’ll remember answering comprehension questions when at school. I did tonnes whilst at primary school, and hated every second of it. I didn’t see any point to it.

Whilst it’s true that comprehension isn’t the most exciting task in the world, its importance cannot be understated. It is probably one of the easiest ways of ensuring students have actually read the information provided, and considered how it can be used to answer the questions being asked – it doesn’t have to be the boring task that I experienced, if coupled with discussion, and an opportunity for students to voice their opinions.

One of the concerns with comprehension tasks is that it can lead to students scanning text for answers to questions, rather than reading the whole piece for a holistic overall understanding. To be honest, I still sometimes read like this. However, I’ve been reading long enough that I have the skill to do this – students need training.

To combat this, wherever time allows, give reading time before revealing the questions – this is made more effective if students also have to do something with the information before they get the questions e.g. summarise the article, discuss it, say what they found most interesting, etc.

The SJFK articles usually have some comprehension questions to answer at the end, as well as a glossary for specialist vocabulary that’s been used.

What should they be reading?

Literally anything. Okay, maybe not literally anything, but most reading helps. If we’re looking at specifically science, then obviously it should really be scientific literature, but beyond that anything will do. Just make sure it’s pitched to around the right level. I’d recommend some of the resources below for secondary pupils.

Resources for reading

Science Journal for Kids – this is great. Academic journal articles are re-written for students, with additional resources too. All free.

The wider reading lists that I’ve created for KS3 and for KS5 Physics (so far!) are attached at the bottom. If you have other suggestions, please let me know.

BBC News (or any other news outlet)

New Scientist (or any other science publisher)

Reading Lists (works in progress!)